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McDonald's french fries are NOT gluten free

Added on 15 Feb, 2006 by Helen Fletton.
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The fast food giant McDonald's has now said its fries are not wheat or gluten
free despite their website, until
Monday of this week, stating that they were. As a result of the new food
allergen licensing laws that came into effect this January,
they have been forced to acknowledge that wheat and dairy ingredients are used
to flavour the fries.

This acknowledgement, posted on the McDonald's website food nutrition list
has infuriated consumers who rely on following a gluten
free diet to main health.

Until now french fries had been thought to be one of the few "safe" items on
their menu, however on Monday McDonald's owned up that
a flavouring agent in the cooking oil used to make its fries is derived from
wheat and dairy ingredients.

According to Dr. Stefano Guandalini, a pediatric gastroenterologist with the
University of Chicago's Celiac Disease Program,
this disclosure doesn't automatically put McDonald's fries on the forbidden
list. "When you process the ingredients such as wheat in
order to derive flavoring, you leave the gluten behind," he explained. "We
have never found any evidence that eating french fries is a
problem."

However while this may or may not be acceptable for those suffering a gluten
allergy, those suffering a wheat allergy still have the
presence of wheat in the product.

Last week McDonald's also acknowledged that their french fries contained more
trans fats than they had previously reported, again
as a consequence of the new labelling laws from the Food and Drug
Administration.

This follow-up admission could bring into doubt the honesty of McDonald's
nutrition data on their website.

A McDonald's spokesman said: "It's important to note that the oil, cooking
process and ingredients in our french fries have not
changed".

This news has angered wheat & gluten allergy sufferers, including parents
of children with food allergies who already have
a difficult enough task getting their food allergy suffering children through
the day without an allergic reaction. Birthday parties,
sleepovers, field trips and other activities are already a minefield where
food allergies exist, and now another item has been removed
from the McDonald's menu, leaving nothing other than ketchup, some other
sauces, salt, side salad, jam, some selected desserts and most
drinks labelled as wheat or gluten free.

The new labelling law requires the packaged foods industry to report all
common allergens, such as wheat, milk, eggs, fish,
shellfish or peanuts, however as a restaurant operator McDonald's does not
have to comply, but is doing so voluntarily.